Did Mamdani “doxx” wealthy New Yorkers?

“PIED-A-TERROR,” the New York Post cover blared on July 28. The paper claimed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani put “people in danger by posting a ‘rich to be taxed’ list publicly.”

In an article published online on July 27, the Post claimed that the Mamdani administration “published a searchable database of Big Apple properties that could fall under the state’s new pied-à-terre tax, effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers.” The Post quoted people calling it a “reckless and foolish move,” “a mistake,” and “a dangerous precedent.”

An article published the same day by the New York Post Editorial Board called the database an “enemies list” and “a kind of one-stop class-warfare shopping list for antifa radicals looking for targets.” The article claims that the list was released to “scar[e]” people and that the Mamdani administration “want[s] everyone owning private property to fear their wrath.”

But Mamdani did not “doxx” any New York City residents. The same information has been public — and searchable online — for decades.

This is not unique to New York City. Property records, including tax information, are publicly available across the country because these records make private ownership of real property possible. Without a public record, there would be no way to resolve competing claims over the same property or ensure that property is transferred unencumbered.

The city was required to publish an updated property ownership list in July as it implements the pied-à-terre tax. The tax will create an annual surcharge on some properties that are not used as a primary residence, also known as “pieds-à-terre.” The tax will apply to condos and co-op units valued at over $1 million and homes valued over $5 million. An April analysis by New York City Comptroller Mark Levine found that the tax could raise between $340 million and $510 million in revenue annually.

But there is little in the new list that wasn’t already freely available. The city has a searchable database called the Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS) that allows users to quickly and easily search through property records by name and address.

While around 960,000 properties were included in the supplemental roll, the actual list of properties that will be subject to the pied-à-terre tax is much smaller. Last month, the city mailed letters to around 17,000 property owners that may be subject to the new tax. Around a third of the letter receivers have already applied for exemptions, the New York Times reported earlier this month.

New York officials have contested the claim that residents were doxxed by the database. “We publish property tax rolls in accordance with the law, as the city has done twice a year for years, frankly, if not decades and centuries,” Mamdani said during a press conference. New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) said that there was “[n]othing unusual here,” adding, “Every building, property tax debt is public. Always has been.”

Several residents included in the data set are now suing the Mamdani administration, arguing that city officials “acted too hastily and sowed confusion.” The lawsuit seeks to take down the supplemental tax roll, among other things, but does not challenge the actual tax. A judge temporarily paused the rollout earlier this month, but an appeals court threw out the order.

Nevertheless, the false “doxxing” claim has been repeated incessantly by the New York Post, and has now spread to other media outlets.

An avalanche of false accusations

Since its initial article from July 27, the New York Post has published around 30 articles on the pied-à-terre tax. Many of them have repeated the doxxing claim and implied that the Mamdani administration is purposely endangering residents who might disagree with the mayor’s agenda.

In a column from August 1, for example, the New York Post Editorial Board wrote, “The sole explanation for this intentional data dump is that the mayor’s office wanted to embarrass and frustrate people who have the bad taste to own something in a city ruled by socialists who believe that all housing should be public housing.”

On August 10, the Editorial Board repeated a similar claim, saying, “This mass doxxing can only be understood as Mao-style anti-landlord rabble-rousing, aiming to shame and scare the radicals’ class enemies.”

On the cover of its August 11 edition, the New York Post described the database as a “shame the rich” list.

In several articles, the New York Post made reference to the 2024 murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione, implying that by making their addresses public, Mamdani was opening wealthy New Yorkers up to similar attacks. One opinion column claimed that Mangione murdered Thompson “in the name of the same toxic ideas that Mamdani peddles.”

The New York Post’s doxxing claim has spread to other outlets, including more mainstream papers like the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

The Wall Street Journal has published many articles on the pied-à-terre tax, and several acknowledge that the information in the new database was already publicly available. However, one column by the paper’s editorial board strikes a very similar tone to the New York Post’s coverage. It says, “The Mayor rolled out his new pied-à-terre tax by publishing the names and addresses of some 960,000 people who could have to pay. Nothing like publicly stigmatizing your class enemies, comrade.”

The Washington Post Editorial Board published a similar statement. The editorial reads, “Note to future mayors: Naming and shaming nearly a million homeowners in your city isn’t a good use of political capital.” Like the New York Post, the Washington Post column also mentions Mangione, saying that such a “high-profile [instance] of anti-capitalist violence may contribute to the anxiety” of wealthy New Yorkers named in the database.

Fox News has also repeatedly pushed the claim that the Mamdani administration is doxxing people. On July 28, for example, Fox News contributor and New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said the database “is really inciting the bloodlust of [Mamdani’s] Marxist revolutionary comrades…. This is inviting other professional squatters to move into these homes or worst-case, Luigi [Mangione] wannabes to prey on these people who have done nothing wrong.”

Other outlets that have claimed that Mamdani is doxxing people include right-leaning sites The Daily Wire and Reason. But the claim has also been repeated by the left.

On a July episode of Pivot, a podcast produced by New York Magazine, liberal businessman Scott Galloway said he had been “doxxed” by Mamdani. Galloway, who noted that he initially supported the pied-à-terre tax, said, “The question I would have is, other than trying to identify and imply these people have done something wrong — and then, 18 months after a health-care CEO was executed in the street, published the list — what is the upside here? Why is he doing this?”

Galloway’s comments were covered by outlets such as Fox News, Reason, and The Hill. Popular Information reached out to Galloway for comment but did not receive a response.

Beyond the media, powerful politicians have also parroted the doxxing claim. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) posted on X, “Comrade Mamdani doxxed thousands of New York City homeowners. This is the communist intimidation playbook in action.”